Cornetto music festival - 25 February 2012

On Saturday, February 25, three of my friends and I decided to go to the Cornetto Love Is In The Air music festival being held at Bloemendal Wine Estate in Durbanville. We were so excited and had been looking forward to it for the whole week prior to the actual event. I must admit the main reason we were so excited was to see Jax Panik perform live after we had witnessed their amazing talents at Synergy Live in November 2011.

After these two performances, I can safely say that Jax Panik has become my favourite South African group/act. They possess this stage presence that makes you want to jump around and dance all the time. They exude a crazy amount of energy that gets the crowd hyped up so that not one person is able to sit still.

Originally from Bellville, Cape Town, Jax Panik consisted of two members, Jacobus van Heerden and Johnny de Ridder. After starting out as a mock pop group, they changed their style to a more current and upbeat style of music, incorporating a dubstep/dance feel to it. Since then they have been performing live all over the country, entertaining fans with their energetic performances and unique style. Now consisting of three members, Jax Panik performs with a DJ (Deon van Zyl) who you will find behind the decks with a "I am Jax Panik" mask on to hide his identity.

Although their CD doesn't quite give you the feel as being at one of their live shows does, do not be discouraged. This is one group I would definitely recommend seeing as soon as you have the chance. Keeping my eyes and ears open for their next Cape Town performance!

What is the colour of the wind?

As soon as most people hear this question, they automatically relive a part of their childhood when Pocahontas ran through the forest with leaves and colours blowing all around her, singing 'can you paint with all the colours of the wind?'

To me, the colour of the wind is any colour that you want it to be. Some days the wind is our worst nightmare. We moan constantly about the wind as it blows our dresses up, blows our hair out of the perfect style it was in before we left the house, and blows all our papers all over the place. It is just plain unpleasant. On the other hand, the wind is our best friend on scorching hot days, when all we need is that fine breath of wind to cool us down.

The wind is all around us, all day, every day.

The mood that we're in and our varying personalities determines what colour we think wind is.

Hot and bothered/bad mood/short-tempered/angry= Red

Happy/good mood = Yellow

Positive/optimistic/easy-going = Green

Passionate/warm = Purple

Powerful/strong/domineering = Orange

Calm/loyal/sincere/spiritual = Blue

So next time the wind is blowing or not blowing and before you complain about it, think of the above definitions to see what colour you see the wind as.

Being an intern...

At the end of November 2011 I completed my year-long internship at marcusbrewster. As part of our third year requirements for our experential learning, we were required to apply to a few companies for possible internships. One of my choices was marcusbrewster as I had previously helped out with their fund-raising book sales in aid of Western Cape NGO, Wola Nani.

Once I was offered the job after two nerve-wracking interviews, I found myself questioning whether I had made the right choice to work there for the next year. The intern the year before had told me what a bad experience she had had there and warned me not to take it! This put me off a bit as I had heard first-hand that it was not a good experience to work there. Albeit, I decided to go with my gut feeling and take the position, knowing that each experience is different to each and every one, and also that it is what you make out of a situation that determines the outcome.

Being an intern is no easy task. I did everything from pitching news stories to media, to washing dishes in the office! There were many tasks I detested doing such as collecting the post, product drops to media, compiling coverage reports, taking minutes at meetings and hundreds of thousands of media clippings on a daily basis. All manotonous admin tasks that no-one really likes doing.

On the other hand, there were so many other exciting opportunities that I was involved in. I attended the 2011 PRISM Awards, built relationships with the media, hosted journalists to dinners, re-launched PLAYBOY South Africa magazine and The Spa at The Twelve Apostles Hotel, and launched South Africa's first eco-cemetery, Legacy Parks. I was involved in and got the opportunity to work on so many different accounts, and overall, gained so much experience that I'm sure I would never have gained elsewhere.

I met such amazing people that I worked with, which even brought me to tears on my last day there. All the hard work paid off in the end and I definitely would not change anything about my experience there.

If I were the boss...

In most cases, employee-employer relationships are hardly ever the best types of relationships that people have with one another. I say this because as a boss, you always need to make sure your subordinates are doing what they are supposed to be doing, that they are meeting their targets and deadlines, and you constantly have to manage and delegate tasks to them.

As an employee, you always feel that your boss is "out to get you" or that they expect too much from you, or even that they like throwing their authority around and making you do all the dirty work. These two conflicting thoughts is what causes the bad relationships between employees and their bosses.

If I were the boss, I would make myself a part of the team so that we would work together to achieve our goals. I would delegate tasks in a non-dictating manner that places emphasis on team work. I would ensure that I put myself on the same level as the other employees and only use my authority when staff do not pull their weight or participate in gross misconduct.

In an ideal world, we would all work together as a team all the time, without one person being more superior than the other. Unfortunately, the real world does require authority and management at one stage or another.

If I were the boss, I would create a sense of unity amoungst staff to ensure that they all get along and to be able to communicate openly about any problems they may be having. As a boss, it is important to ensure that your team is motivated and comfortable in the environment in which they work. I would place great empasis on empathy towards staff and ensuring they work in an environment that boasts diversity, equality and productivity.

Cruising...

In January 2012, my very generous friend, Nicole, took 7 friends with her on a boat cruise from Cape Town to Walvis Bay in celebration of her 21st birthday.

We had been planning this trip since she told us about it in March the previous year. Imagine eight friends on a cruise ship to another country in celebration of you turning 21! We all had to get passports and take sea-sickness tables seeing that we were going to another country and would be on a boat for five days. I bought a suitcase and a floppy hat and was fully prepared for this trip.

We departed on the MSC Melody on January 15 and had the time of our lives. There were themed entertainment shows every night, bingo games, apertif games, line dancing, Captain's cocktail evening, tropical parties and other competitions such as Mr and Miss Melody. Every night we dressed up and had an amazing three-course dinner, and even got to meet and take a photo with the Captain of the ship.

We docked in Walvis Bay, Namibia, on Tuesday, January 17 and found absolutely nothing to do there other than walk 10KM to the lagoon and back (where I got extremely sunburnt, might I add). The highlight in Namibia was seeing a pellican on the lagoon water. We got back on the boat and headed back to Cape Town, arriving back on Thursday, January 19.

By far the highlight of the trip was just being on the boat, lying on deck with a cocktail in hand, and not having a single worry in the world. It is a great atmosphere and definitely an experience to be shared with friends.

Two people come out of a building and into a story

In January 2004 I met two of my best friends when I just started high school. Nicole Fritz and Nicole de Freitas - yes, both with the same name! After getting to know them, they went from being just mere acquaintances I had met in my Grade 8 class into one of the biggest parts of the story of my life.

We have been friends for nine years now and have still not grown tired of each other. We go out together, go on holidays together and just hang out together on many ladies' nights! We have gone all over the place such as Berg River, Kleinmond, Montagu, Cape Agulhas, Port Elizabeth and even Walvis Bay.

It's strange to see that even though we have changed so much since that first day we met, we have remained friends throughout the many developments in our lives. Friday Youth evenings changed to clubbing until the early hours of the morning; ordering cooldrinks changed to trying every cockail on the menu; and asking mom or dad for a lift somewhere changed to "I'll pick you up in 15 minutes." Even though times changed and we grow up, the sincere things in life remain the same.

This post is dedicated to the two Nicoles who have helped me to stay grounded and have remained my friends through the good, the bad, the easy, the tough and sometimes the ugly times. They stepped out of that building and into my story which I will carry on reading forever :)

BTech, social media, and everything else inbetween...

After three years of studying at CPUT, and one year-long intense but awe-inspiring internship at marcusbrewster (more about that later), I decided to complete my BTech in Public Relations Management. I knew from the day that I enrolled at CPUT that I wanted to complete all four years. Obtaining my degree has always been at the top of my list and great motivation for me to do my best.

Classes commenced this week, and I must say, it has hit me like a bang. My previous three years feel like nothing compared to this first week of fourth year! I can see that we are all in for a very busy, hard-working but exciting 2012.

I don't really consider myself a social media "guru" or very "techno-savvy." The only social media platform I really make use of is Facebook. That, however, is all about to change. This year is all about blogging, tweeting, networking, and being up to date with all the latest techno phrases, gadgets and apps.

This is very exciting as the world of PR is changing. More and more people are focusing on social media campaigns and what is going on in cyber world. That is why it is important to learn about these things and become well-acquainted with it.

So, if whenever you see me this year I'm glued to my BlackBerry or I'm busy tweeting everything you tell me, please understand. It's all in the name of PR!

How hard is it to follow instructions?

An instruction may refer to a set of steps or rules that have been set out for us to adhere to or follow. Instructions are put in place for a reason. They maintain stability and order.

You may not notice it, but instructions form a part of our everyday lives. For example, stopping at a Stop sign while driving. If we did not adhere to this simple instruction, there would be complete havoc on the roads.

Instructions also serve the purpose of explaining things. If we did not follow instructions, we would not know how to assemble a baby's cot or a model aeroplane. We would not know how to care for expensive garments or how to cook delicious food from various recipes - all mandatory tasks that we don't give a second thought to.

The act of following instructions seems easy enough, albeit this does not mean we like to adhere to them.

It is the order and stability that instructions creat that makes us, as "individuals", want to deviate from it. As a creative person, it is challenging to follow instructions because we like to "think outside the box" and to be innovative or different. This is difficult to maintain when set instructions are given to you to follow. Everybody wants to be unique.

It can therefore be said that following instructions is a hard thing to do. This is influenced by different circumstances we are placed in. We choose when it is convenient or not for us to follow instructions.